Peter Ruzicka

Benjamin

Introduction at 6.50 pm | „OpernForum“ after the show

Walter Benjamin was a German philosopher and cultural scientist. A Jew and Marxist, his path through the 20th century was irregular and meandering. The figures in this opera accompanying Benjamin on his last wanderings through life designate areas of his influence. Hannah Arendt spoke of the “banality of evil”, Benjamin’s chess partner Bertolt Brecht polemicised against his “Jewish fascism”, the Kabala researcher Gershom Scholem urged his friend to come to Israel, and with the Latvian actress Asja Lacis, Benjamin fantasised about proletarian children’s theatre. To Benjamin, it was not world revolution, but "weak messianic power" that pointed the way to a just society. While escaping to the USA, Benjamin took his own life in the Spanish border town of Port-Bou in 1940.